The Hobby Horse

The hobby horse was a rustic dance performed by a rider with a pasteboard horse. During the display, collections of money were taken up, the horse had a ladle tied to his mouth with a ribbon, and money was taken to defray the cost of the entertainment, the cakes and ale, and also to distribute money to the poor. Also related, Hodening- the wearing of a horse-head hood and performing door to door around Christmas for the collection of alms.

A vague thread may connect these practices with the very early Scandinavian tradition of sacrificing a horse to Odin. Völsi blót: The Völsi was the penis of a stallion, and the rites surrounding it are described in Völsa þáttr. It was taken from a stallion during the autumn butchering, and it is said that the mistress of the homestead considered it to be her god, and kept it in a coffin together with linen and leeks. In the evening everybody gathered in the main building. The mistress presented the penis from the coffin, greeted it with a prayer, and let it pass from person to person. Everybody greeted it with the religious phrase May Mörnir receive the holy sacrifice!